


Robotics

by WinchesterWarrenSon



Series: Battle Scars Series [16]
Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: Body Modification, Developmentally Disabled Son Goku, Disabled Character, M/M, Relationship Problems
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-14
Updated: 2015-07-14
Packaged: 2018-04-09 06:20:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4337246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WinchesterWarrenSon/pseuds/WinchesterWarrenSon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Goku comes back from starting Uub's training. He and Yamcha have their first real fight.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Robotics

**Author's Note:**

> I'm convinced Goku never really learned how to read and the one time we see him reading when Master Roshi is "teaching" him with porno books is him having overheard Master Roshi reading out loud to himself and just memorized the damn thing. My grandfather did the same thing (memorized the book, then repeated it back) and didn't learn how to actually read until he was 21.

It was a few more months before Goku returned to Yamcha. He had showed up unexpectedly on a Saturday morning, grinning brightly and startling Yamcha, Puar, and Oolong as they had breakfast. 

He hugged Yamcha tightly (too tightly, honestly) and swung him around in a circle as a greeting. 

"I've missed you~!" Goku said, planting a kiss on Yamcha's cheek. 

Yamcha smiled, forgiving Goku for scaring them without being asked to. 

They stayed at home the first day, lazing around and cooking meals and Yamcha showing Goku what he could do with his new robotic leg. The sparring was light, especially for Goku, but Goku's face was no less bright. Both of them could see the improvement Yamcha had made, and Goku embraced him once again when their sparring session was done. 

"I'm so proud of you!" Goku practically squealed. 

Yamcha laughed, having forgotten just how good it felt to be loved on this much in the months Goku had been gone. 

It was a while before trouble returned to paradise. But this time, it wasn't in the form of suicide attempts or hordes of disabled children unexpectedly plopped in someone's lap. 

This time, it was triggered by something as simple and seemingly harmless as a magazine. 

Goku had been back for a few months more, had started going to work again, though he had let them know that he would be going off to continue Uub's training at some point. The transgender bar had been probably more understanding than they should have been, but Goku had proven to be a very good bodyguard (and Ms. Hana seemed to have picked up on the fact that Goku had a very hard time reading and wouldn't be able to get another job elsewhere probably). 

Yamcha was out at work when Goku had come home, and Goku was doing the usual push-ups after work when he noticed something was carelessly kicked underneath the couch. He fished it out, curious about what it was. 

He raised an eyebrow at the magazine. The cover looked . . . weird. Chichi never would've let the thing in the house, with the cover looking like that. People had things in their ears, distending the earlobe so it had big holes in them, multiple piercings, heavy tattooing, and other stuff Goku had never seen before and was really unsure of how to even describe it. The title read "Body Mod for the Newb." 

Goku continued to do his push-ups, turning a page in the magazine with each one so he could train and see what it was at the same time. He eventually landed on an article that had the title as "Robotics, Cyborgs, and the Revolution in Body Modification." 

Goku stopped mid-push-up, then he adjusted himself so he could sit and read. 

Goku's reading was not good. There were many words in the article that he could not make heads or tails of. In fact, he could barely really read "Modification" and didn't even know what that even meant. 

He heard Puar and Oolong enter the apartment, then he looked over his shoulder at them. 

"Hey, Puar! Oolong! Can you help me with something?" 

"Uh, sure, Goku," Puar said. 

"What is it?" Oolong asked. 

Goku showed them the magazine, and Puar read it aloud for them. Occasionally, Goku asked what a word meant, and Oolong provided the explanation. 

It basically was talking about the recent development of legal robotics in body modification surgeries and how there was a developing overlap between necessary medical robot parts for those with severe injuries and disabilities and body modification for able-bodied individuals. It lightly touched on the nature of previously illegal robotics surgeries and how those were sometimes not voluntary on the part of the person receiving the surgery, but it was so glossed over that Goku almost missed it. It reminded him of 18 and 17, though. 

At the bottom of the article, there was some contact information for a surgeon who had been interviewed for it. It was circled in pen. 

Goku frowned. 

"What's it doing here?" he asked. 

Oolong shrugged. 

"Heck if I know, it's not mine." 

"Not mine either," Puar said. 

Goku's frown deepened. That meant it was Yamcha's.... 

But . . . . 

Goku didn't bring it up right away. He let the idea roll around in his head for a while, imagining what it would be like if Yamcha was more like 18 and 17. 

He liked 17 and 18 well enough now that they were good guys. But he had a hard time reading their facial expressions. Even when 18 was smiling, Goku had a hard time telling if she was happy or not. 

He liked how expressive Yamcha was and how he could easily tell what Yamcha was thinking. 

18 was tough and not very soft to touch, the few times Goku had bumped into her or tapped her shoulder or arm for whatever reason. She was stable and firm, but she was definitely made out of metal. Goku could feel it through the realistic skin. 

Yamcha was soft, even with all the muscle. He was steadier now with the robot leg, and he was happier and not in physical pain anymore, and Goku liked that, but he was still _Yamcha_ and felt like Yamcha and smelled like him and . . . and he didn't want Yamcha to feel like metal and smell like steel. 

The more he thought about it, the less he liked it, and the more annoyed he got with the magazine's presence in the apartment. 

The idea pestered him during training and meals, and after a few weeks of keeping it to himself, he couldn't take it any more and just spat it out. 

Unfortunately, they were not alone when he spat it out. 

It was another gathering at Bulma's, and Goku had been very oddly quiet for the whole thing up until this point. 17 for once actually had joined the group, wanting to see Marron and 18 again. (17 and Krillin got along all right, but no one would have really described them as friends.) 

"Why do you want to be a robot?" Goku asked abruptly, interrupting the conversation Yamcha was having with Tenshinhan and Chiaotzu. 

Goku had asked the question rather loudly, so everyone looked over at them. 

Yamcha just stared at Goku for a long time. 

"Are you . . . asking me that?" Yamcha asked for clarification. 

"You're the one with a body modification mag under the couch." 

Yamcha blushed heavily. He shot Puar and Oolong a look, and they shrunk a little. 

"I found it myself," Goku said, knowing what was going through Yamcha's head. 

Yamcha adjusted himself in his seat. 

"Yeah, what about it?" 

"Why do you want to be a robot?" 

"It's not being a robot, it's - "

"Same difference!" 

Semantics wasn't Goku's strong suit, and he just wanted an answer, and he had been making himself feel uncomfortable for days now. He did not have the patience for Yamcha's tender-footing around the subject. 

The intensity that Goku snapped with startled their friends, and Yamcha seemed a little taken aback, but Yamcha recovered the fastest. He had been living with him this long, after all, and he had seen Goku have meltdowns (though they were mild compared to what Goku was capable of in terms of destruction of property and hurting himself in the grand scheme of things). 

"All right. Can we at least talk about this alone?" 

"Alone now or alone later?" Goku asked. 

". . . I'd rather later. . . ." 

Goku furrowed his eyebrows and pouted. 

"We're having this conversation now." 

Yamcha sighed heavily. 

"Fine." 

Yamcha then stood up and grabbed Goku by the arm. Goku let him drag him out of the room and outside. 

That didn't stop Puar and Oolong from going to listen in, but the others stayed where they were, watching them go. 

Chichi frowned. While she and Goku weren't married anymore, they were still friends. 

Even Gohan was a little concerned, and he had been trying really hard not to care. 

Piccolo could still hear every word thanks to his hearing. 

Bulma clued in on this. 

"You better tell us what they're talking about," Bulma said. 

A vein in Piccolo's forehead twitched. But he didn't say no. 

Outside, Yamcha tried to find the best place to start with his explanation. 

He decided the less involved he was, the better. 

"I just really like how the robot leg has been working, and I really think I could be even better - physically - if I had . . . more of it." 

Goku was frowning, though. With how Yamcha was avoiding looking him in the face, he had a weird feeling about that answer. He had gotten to know Yamcha better than he ever had before thanks to their relationship, and this felt fishy, even if he couldn't quite understand why he felt that and was so willing to accept any kind of answer earlier in their friendship. 

"But you could just train.... The other parts of you got healed up to what they're supposed to be because of the senzu beans we've had access to. The rest of you doesn't have the same issues as your leg did...." Goku said. 

Yamcha was quiet, and Goku waited, but Yamcha didn't elaborate. 

Instead, he just acted stubborn, and that really rubbed Goku the wrong way. 

"Well, it's not really up to you, either way," Yamcha said. 

"What's that supposed to mean?" 

"It means you don't get a say in the matter in whether or not I get more robot parts. It's my decision, and I don't need your permission." 

"But why do you even want them!? It can't just be because of that! And how many parts are you wanting? I don't want a robot boyfriend, I want a Yamcha boyfriend!" 

Goku's voice was getting gradually louder, and at one point, they didn't need Piccolo to tell them what Goku was saying.

"What do you have against that, anyway? You like 18 and 17 just fine!" 

"That's different! I haven't known them any other way! For all we know, they were completely different people before Dr. Gero! What if you're not you anymore?"

"Then _good_! I don't _like_ me!" 

"But I do! I like you just the way you are!" 

"What, weak and pathetic and unable to help when we really need it? Stuck on anxiety medication and suicide watch!?" 

"But you're not weak and pathetic!" 

"That's easy for you to say, you're always the one saving the world and can beat the bad guys! And Vegeta and Piccolo are right behind you and - and I've been behind forever and even with the leg, I'm still behind, and I'll never be able to keep up if I don't - !" 

"You've only just started getting back into training after taking a break for so long! It'll get easier, and I can help! We can get Master Roshi or someone - King Kai! Or, or Mr. Satan even or anybody - to guide you! You don't have to _change_ yourself so much in order to improve!" 

Yamcha didn't believe him. Goku could see it in his face, and that more than anything pushed Goku into feeling upset. 

Yamcha was refusing to look at him as Goku, for the first time in a very long time, started to tear up. He didn't actually cry, but he looked like he might start. 

Death just meant that Goku would only be able to see Yamcha in Otherworld. It didn't mean Yamcha wasn't Yamcha anymore, and that was an upsetting thought. 

Yamcha went back into the house, and Goku stayed outside. Instead of crying, he ran into the GR and revved up the gravity. Vegeta joined him not too long after, and Gohan surprised them both by knocking on the GR door and joining in.

**Author's Note:**

> This isn't any kind of reflection on how I see body modification. I actually think some of it is really cool, and others kind of freak me out. There's even some that I would seek out if my job didn't make that an impossibility. It's just exploring how Yamcha's choices and view of himself are affecting his and Goku's relationship.


End file.
